Oh the Humanities

If someone has said to you, "so what are you going to do with that?" after you've told them your degree subject, the chances are you study a Humanities subject or a Social Science. So is it true, as many of the Daily Mail commenters profess, that it's all doom and gloom in terms of our employment prospects or is there light at the end of the tunnel for those of us not blessed with studying in the Maths and Science departments? 

Source: www.scientificamerican.com 

Although in the social standing of degree subjects you might not feel you're at the top, you definitely have something to offer. For instance, History students are highly valued for their ability to analyse information and present a good argument, whilst Sociology students are praised for their understanding of society and their ability to interpret research. That's right, useful research goes on in the other departments too! You may find it useful to try and think of the skills you think you're developing and if you get stuck, ask a member of staff on your course because they will be able to see it first hand. 

I haven't got anything against people into Maths and Science, I just don't feel a need for people who probably haven't even studied those kinds of subjects themselves to kill the self esteem of millions of students not studying those subjects with comments that they don't have justification for. 

If it were true that an English degree could only be used for being an English teacher, there would surely be a report on the mass unemployment amongst English graduates. But there isn't. And that's because the probability is you will get employed. Every department gives its students skills to take to the job market with them. Employers do value these skills and many graduate jobs don't ask for a specific degree because they know all graduates will come with a ready skill set and they want variety amongst their employees, which surely would not be the case if we all came tailored with our chemistry sets. 

It's also important to remember that you don't have to get a job related to your degree subject at all. You could ask people in years above you to ask what they did with their degree, but just because someone hasn't done it yet, doesn't mean you can't. 

I'll leave you with some examples of graduates I know who have gone into professions seemingly unrelated to their degree but which they were chosen for due to the skills they demonstrated: 

Politics - Food Factory Management Graduate Scheme 

Medicine - Lawyer

Nursing - Accountant 

English Literature - Human Resources Graduate Scheme 

Geography - Public Services Graduate Scheme 

Education - Consultancy Graduate Scheme 

Don't believe everything you read in the papers about which subjects are best, unemployment exists for students of those subjects too, just try and develop as much as you can at Uni and present your skills well when applying for jobs. Look out for our CV tips coming soon.